Beddgelert / Bedgellert / Bedkelerd / Bekelert / Bethgelert

Noted in Jenkins (2008). Described and illustrated in the Parish web site [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/beddgelert.village/churchtour.html] [accessed 20 March 2009]: "The font, just inside the west door, has two inscriptions added in the 1880s. The top one reads "R.W. Vicar, W.E.P. Churchwarden, restored 1882" in an alphabet [Coelbren y Beirdd = bardic alphabet] said to have been devised by the Welsh antiquarian and bard Iolo Morganwg [Edward Williams (1747-1826)]. This inscription is caved around the upper surface of the rim of what is undoubtedly an ancient bowl. The base is of much more recent date and shows marks that would have been made by a circular saw. The lower inscription reads "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen" and is said to have been devised by the supposed eighth century monk Nennius. One suggestion is that Nennius invented the alphabet used here to counteract the charge that there was no alphabet." [NB: was this originally a font?]. The font consists of three separate pieces: a modern square plinth, a round moulded pedestal base, also modern, and a roughly cylindrical basin of small proportions, unlined, with a central drain; this piece appears to be old, probably too small to have been originally a baptismal font. [NB: the medieval church, said to have been badly damaged in the late-13th century underwent a major renovation in Victorian times]